Solar Halos – Solar Halos

Solar Halos – Solar Halos
Devouter Records – 2014
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Doom, Metal
Rated: ****

Horseback, Caltrop, Curtains of Night and Fin Fang Foom; those aren’t the least of bands to perfect ones art in. And the members who met each other in one or more of those bands decided to form yet another, perhaps even better, one: Solar Halos. A psychedelic stoner force power trio that released their self-titled debut effort a small month ago. With metallic and doomy touches, the six tracks on the record quickly nestle into brain and heart. With a minimal and eerie approach the songs reach the maximum effect. Soulful southern touches and absolute stunning vocals take you on a true pilgrimage across the mountainside; filled with intense guitar lines and glittering drum work. Every track sets off fireworks in the mind which seem to linger on forever. Awe-inspiring debut from a trio that is set on producing the best art they can capture…

 

(Written by JK)

 

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Slow Mover – Move Slower

Slow Mover – Move Slower
Self released – 2014
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Punk
Rated: ****

The Slow Mover quartet from the Boston, United States area reminds us once again that there once was this genre called skater punk and the four amigos punch us in the gut claiming a more heavy, more metal and more stoner revival of said genre. On their second album Move Slower we never move slower and keep speeding up until we make big air and soar through the clouds never even for one moment thinking about the fucked up fact that we will eventually fall back down again. Raw stomping exuberance and giddy filth roll over you as the riffs and guitar lines get you high and reliving those good ol’ days. With excellent drum work and desperate howls the seven tracks have no problem claiming your heart, mind and soul. And by the end; we’re all dogs! Time, time for sum aksion is all we’re saying…

(Written by JK)

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Birth of Joy – Prisoner

Birth of Joy – Prisoner
Suburban – 2014
Rock, Psych, Seventies
Rated: ****

 

The past years the Dutch formation Birth of Joy has been doing well, especially across the border. But with their new album Prisoner we are sure to see them gathering the masses in their home country as well. Cause with the purring sounds of a maniac Hammond, ruthless drum pounding and a massive guitar sound there is no escaping their loud and confident posture. Intense heavy rock with psychedelic influences straight from the sixties and seventies and with almost radioactively glowing blues roots. Add to this an expert and instinctive navigation between a raw garage sound and soulful inspired heaviness and one can only testify to a steaming hot summer lurking just around the corner. Did you dig the amazing Shaking Godspeed? Did you love the luscious DeWolff? Check out Birth Of Joy; cause they bring their flaming weight from the golden era of music with an emotional and intense heat and a truckload of steroids. Birth of Joy is bringing the sun; and it’s as hot as molten lava!

 

(Written by JK)

 

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Mammoth Storm – Rite of Ascension

Mammoth Storm – Rite of Ascension                
Self Released 2014
Doom, Sludge 
Rated: ***

Rite of Ascension, the effort laid forth by Sweden’s newcomers Mammoth Storm lay their cards out on the table quite early in the form of two tracks of menacing, plodding doom metal. This particular doom shimmy recalls the likes of Sleep and Warhorse, the former by way of a gruff, stoned vocal delivery and the latter in the form of thick, grimy doom metal riffs that may or may not leave thin resin cake on your ears. Whether or not one should smoke said resin cake is up to the listener but the high times certainly permeate the recording session. What the title track may lack in variation is made up for in mind-swerving doom riffage. Second track “Obscure Horizon”, thankfully varies up the proceedings by splicing in quieter moments and introducing some phased-out guitar soloing that lends just enough psychedelic flavor to keep the track above water. Mammoth Storm have some work to do in the songwriting department, but the sheer devotion to sludgy stoner doom is unquestionably, and welcome...

 

(Written by Matthew McGarity)

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Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

 

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

The Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday segment is a weekly feature of a handful of bands and only a small amount of words to help spread their musical prowess and our melodic belief… 

 

 

King Buffalo – Demo

Neil Young lives! Holy crap; give King Buffalo a listen and be mesmerized by the Neil Young qualities that are alive in the psychedelic stoner blues that is brought to you by four Rochester, NY freaks. Especially on the first track Pocket Full Of Knife you dream away and feel completely at home on the range. And then on the second Mr. Young implores some Wovenhand and gets even more mysterious. Simply awesome! So holy hell, all hail King Buffalo!

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Happening – Birth

The French trio Happening was formed in 2012 and released their first EP Birth last year. A five-track release chuck full of chunky riffs and angular rhythms. The raw and clean vocals dual as the tiny progressive maneuvers and hardcore itches propel the songs to grand refrains. Energetic and precisely executed manufactured chaos. We might be witnessing the birth of something damn good?

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Telepathy – Cystine Knot

Soon the world will be treated to the first album by Telepathy; but to warm our souls and blacken our hearts they already released one track called Cystine Knot. An instrumental progressive sludge and post metal adventure that uses elements of noise and ambient to lure the listener ever further towards the edge of the cliff… Will they push you over?

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Black Space Riders – D:Rei

Black Space Riders – D:Rei
Self released/Cargo – 2014
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Grunge, Doom, Sludge, Space
Rated: ****

Ominous slow rising sounds of water and seemingly lost notes that bop along the waves towards a destination unknown. But then suddenly the shore looms up and it shows a rider, moving fast along the rocky cliff, on some sort of sacred mission, and he passes thousands of folk that are standing there, in the dark, staring at the black water… Holy crap, this is one hell of a start to the new album D:Rei by the German quintet Black Space Riders. An album that holds so much beauty in its grasp it sometimes almost becomes unbearable. It not only excels in fusing all the heavy elements we all hold dear into something unique and powerful. It also shines in delivering monstrous stoner grooves and grungy aggression. But there’s more! Weird little eighties sounding moments and tricky experimental nineties metal. Open chords and crazy almost moaning vocals at times battling the absolute booming sound. Highly diverse, adventurous and absolutely surging in intensity like the pounding waves upon the coccolithic cliffs. It tests the rocky heights on how much it can take. How much can you take?

 

(Written by JK)

 

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Space Paranoids – Under The King Of Stone

Space Paranoids – Under The King Of Stone
Madhouse Music/Self released – 2012
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Space
Rated: ***

With a band name like Space Paranoids one would expect to be treated to some damn fine hallucinatory space rock. But the four Italians that have implored this moniker for their music provide us with some heavy stoner that only uses the intergalactic sounds as little tweaks and the psychedelic influences as minor ticks. For their album Under The King Of Stone already released in 2012 could come straight out of the desert and implores the heavy riffs and loud bursts just as well as the godfathers did themselves. With a lo-fi production of the recordings that were done live; there’s a certain charm to this release. It evokes some sort of magic that reminds us, even if it’s just for a second, of something seventies and something bluesy, of something so desirable and beguiling that it leaves you wandering through your memories as the album continues. An instinctive sort of magnetism that only nature exhumes. Like that love you lost long ago, a charcoal drawing of something mystical or the magnificent mountain in front of you waiting for your exploration… These astronauts are earth bound!

(Written by JK)

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Mexicoma – Obsidian Monolith

Mexicoma – Obsidian Monolith
Bilocation Records/Kozmik-Artifactz/Self released – 2014
Rock, Stoner
Rated: *****

On their new album Obsidian Monolith we are still assaulted by three axe-slinging maniacs! We are ofcourse talking about the Swedish six-piece stoner train that is Mexicoma! Which barrels down the line full force as the first track Keep Me Alive kicks in. And during this one and the next never eases up on the throttle; cause the beating continues on Mortified with drums that leave you completely battered and bruised. But with the third and fourth it deepens, darkens and grows into something grandiose which will stand tall until the end of time. And then comes the mighty pounding groove in the dangerous sounding Room 101. And the magnificence goes on and on and on until the final unplugged version of Salvation. Which shows Mexicoma is capable of almost anything we could possible think of. After treating us to grade A seventies inspired hard rock with hefty stoner influences on their first releases Supervoid and Mexicoma they’ve morphed into something bigger, taller and shinier. Like a mystical clouded monument that only shows its real beauty to the initiated…

(Written by JK)

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Fuzz Manta – The Stonewolf

Fuzz Manta – The Stonewolf
Bilocation Records/ Kozmik Artifactz – 2013
Rock, Hard, Prog, Seventies, Psych, Kraut
Rated: ***

 

Looking for a something hefty, grand and majestic to sink your teeth in? Look no further. For Fuzz Manta has delivered one gigantic piece of art that feels in touch with something mystical and earthy at the same time. It is called The Stonewolf and it features eight tracks and lasts for more than an hour and eleven minutes. And the first two parts alone which are called The Stonewolf Part 1 & 2 add up to 34 minutes of avant-garde psychedelic hard rock with overtones of progressive seventies influences and hippiesque kraut rock inspirations. The four Danes go overboard on these two tracks to make sure you feel overwhelmed and completely in shock. It takes the rest of the album to recuperate and get grounded once again. And thanks to damn fine obscure sounding psychedelic rockers like Mind Reader and My Baby In Vain you will touch down and feel whole again. In the end the record serves as a highly melodic and extremely seductive musical painting full of Day-Glo colors. The vintage sounding Stonewolf howls and will hunt you down and devour you whole!

 

(Written by JK)

 

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Sykopath Condor – Sykopath Condor

Sykopath Condor – Sykopath Condor
Self released – 2013
Rock, Hard, Stoner, Grunge,
Rated: ****

Hailing from the United Kingdom; the Sykopath Condor quartet was formed in 2010 and have been wrecking stages across the country since 2012. They released a first EP called Run For Cover in the early months of 2013 and followed that up with their first full-sized self-titled album in November. An eleven-track effort that captures that alternative rock and grunge feel of Pearl Jam with something that lives in the desert and breathes fire. It has a hefty stoner atmosphere provided by grimy riffs and thunderous drum work. Vocalist Zafirakis has a very own and damn fine voice that moves towards Vedder but does not try to emulate him. The most amazing aspect of the album is probably the highly eclectic nature of the eleven songs which are still able to retain the quality and same color spectrum to show us that they belong together. Sykopath Condor; remember that name!

(Written by JK)

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Chron Goblin – Life For The Living

Chron Goblin – Life For The Living
Self released/Southern Cross – 2013
Rock, Hard, Stoner, Metal
Rated: ***

The Canadian quartet Chron Goblin was formed in 2009 and have since been infesting grimy bars and dirty watering holes with their infectious and raucous rock. Their second album Life For The Living features ten wild tracks that are mainlining on hard rock with heavy metal influences. Add a small twinge of southern spirit and a handful of stoner groove with a twist of seventies swing. Above all though there is this biker attitude and bluesy twang that holds you captive and has you ordering bourbon by the six’s. Two you pour together leaving you with four glasses to carry. One you chuck and one goes into the lumberjack shirt pocket and the two that are filled to the rim you take in your hands; and off you go weaving and ducking through the mad and boisterous pub crowd all jumping and screaming to the sounds of Chron Goblin. Cause if there is one thing clear when listening to their new album: these guys know how to tear the roof off in any venue!

(Written by JK)

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Buzzherd – On Sinking Ships… Rats Drown

Buzzherd – On Sinking Ships… Rats Drown
Dullest Records/Southern Cross – 2013
Sludge, Metal, Thrash
Rated: ***

The five lovely freaks from the American formation Buzzherd have definitely delivered something rough and wicked with their six-track album On Sinking Ships… Rats Drown. Combining thrash metal, with sludge, doom, punk and stoner to create something highly crusty and grimy. It definitely is one of the filthiest records to cross our path in the beginning of this foul year of our lord 2014. They indeed have some damn fine ability to punch you in the stomach with a club hammer full of paranoia, fear and loathing. Their tracks are laced with poison and the moving drums; hunkered down on some moments and full on blasting the next have you hopping around as if you were walking on fire. The same goes for the guitars who are both cruel and paradoxically benevolent. It has you weary for what comes next but lusting after it nonetheless. So turn the music up! My heart feels like an alligator!

(Written by JK)

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Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

The Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday segment will be a weekly feature of a handful of bands and only a small amount of words to help spread their musical prowess… 

Omega Sun – Rehearsal Demo 2013

Today we visit lovely Slovenia. First up is Omega Sun. A recently formed instrumental trio that recorded their first two-track demo back in December of 2013. Two groovy stoner tracks that are both wickedly heavy and monstrously fuzzed-out. Want to feel the heat of summer of generator parties and massive riffs? Check out Omega Sun! (Psst. Word on street is they’ve also been drinking with a vocalist? So who knows what the future holds?)

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Jegulja – Live

Former member of the mighty Slovenian stoner groove formation Carnaval started his own band: Jegulja. The first gigs have come and gone. Free for all stoner freak out music meant for the open minded and open hearted. An instrumental trio that tunes their guitars low and let’s the drummer take charge… Strange and extremely challenging… Even though the soundquality isn't really good; Check out Jegulja!

 

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Broken Lock - Want to exit this ergastulum?

And to keep things Slovenian; let’s revisit the 2009 album Want To Exit This Ergastulum? by the crossover progressive alternative sludge metal formation Broken Lock. And with jazz and stoner elements is difficult to pinpoint and that’s what makes them interesting… And a new album is still waiting; just behind the horizon… 

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